Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I'm very fortunate to count among my friends a lady who is a consummate doll maker & costumer.

Where I struggle with dressing a mini doll using an actual clothes pattern, Dana can take a scrap of lace or a tiny piece of material and make not just the most amazing clothes but actually do it on the doll.

Not only is she the owner of MSATMiniDoll list, a Yahoo group that, although having been online for 20(?) years, continues with daily moderated discussions, but now Dana has taken on a new venue as a continuation of her talents, an online magazine called Frills and Fancy Ezine.

Here's how Dana's reasoning for doing this:

Life provides an endless opportunity of visual stimulation. The different perspectives that an artist takes in, keeps in visual memory and creates at a later date is astounding! For those of us with less then perfect memories ... tear sheets (or a simple notebook filled with photos, magazine pages, or doodles) provides a wonderful *scrapbook* of ideas.The launch of this FRILLS AND FANCY magazine tackles this very subject. Our take this year, is providing you with TECHNIQUES rather then tons of patterns. AND ... before you start to question the logic of this ... may I point out - that there are literally HUNDREDS of doll tutorials/patterns online for free. BUT the basics, or tricks, tips or techniques IN ORDER TO GET TO THE NEXT step are somewhat lacking! We aim therefore ... to provide short techniques, tips and dollmaking tricks that are universal in most doll patterns. AND for the die hard dollmaker, YES there will be at least one full doll tutorial in each issue.

Put cornstarch in a measuring cupIn a mix bowl combine glue, water, baby oil and ponds Mix together well Slowly add cornstarch mix till smooth Place in a non stick surface pan or electric skillet on low or med Keep stirring the mixture until it balls up like bread dough Remove form heat and as soon as you can touch it, knead it (you can use a small bit of ponds on your hands so it wont stick) It may be amber colored at this time as you knead it if you are doing it right it will start to turn a bright white with no lumps and be extremely smooth You must store in wrapped saran wrap and ziplock bag so you have no air exposure as it air dries do not refrigerateIt has a transparent look to it when air dried. You can add color to it with oil colors.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Second recipe:

Mix together all ingredients in a non stick pan and heat gently over a low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. The dough will come away from the sides of the pan and stick in a big lump to your spoon. Cook for another minute or so and then put it onto a plate and knead in the rest of the cornflour (1/4 cup). You get in a real mess with it all over your hands.

You must let it cool completely before wrapping it up in a couple of layers of cling film (saran wrap) Store it in another plastic bag or a plastic box. If you wrap it whilst it's still warm it will go mouldy. If it's still too sticky, you can zap it in 10 second bursts in the microwave.

Some people make theirs in the microwave to start with: use a bowl or pan and a spoon that you won't use for food. I've not tried making it in the microwave from scratch but I do zap it sometimes if I've not cooked it enough in the pan. You don't want it to go crumbly in the pan; if you do then it's overcooked and has to be thrown out. So undercook it in the pan and finish it off in the microwave to be safe.

If you want colored cold porcelain:For darker colors, use oil paint. Acrylic paints will crack when used in large amounts; acrylic paint is more for pastels or soft colors.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Some time ago I had a customer ask me to make a roombox for her 1:12 Dracula rising from his castle. She also wanted a graveyard to show off some additional ghosties & skeletons. I immediately thought about how perfect a ruined castle would be....Although there's not much more to do, other than make the interior of the ruins look just that little bit more dark and dank & give the graveyard grounds a spookier look, I doubt I'll have it ready this month but........ since Halloween is almost upon us, I thought I'd show you some more Work-In-Progress photos:

I didn't want Dracula feeling lonely so I added 3 little friends flying close to the stone walls....

So now for my give-away news..... unfortunately this is for facebook followers only:I intend having a give-away of a 7"x9" (2 sided)roombox when I reach 100 likes on my OrrLakeMiniatures facebook page (winner to pay shipping).Every person following gets one entry so you'd have a 1in100 chance of winning.